Chris Carter hospitalized
I just saw that Chris Carter,the mastermind behind "The X-Files," is reportedly getting medical care for exhaustion and "an acute sleep disorder." Whitney Pastorek at EW.com has this brief item:
Chris Carter, writer, producer, and director of "The X-Files: I Want to Believe," was hospitalized on Tuesday due to "physical exhaustion and an acute sleeping disorder," a source close to Carter tells EW.com. The source says the hospitalization stems from Carter "working on multiple films back to back over a two year period" -- the recently released "X-Files" sequel and "Fencewalker," a covert project he is rumored to have begun shooting earlier this year. He is expected to recover quickly.
This news follows the announcement last week by David Duchovny's attorney, Stanton Stein, that the "X-Files" and "Californication" star is in rehab to deal with his sex addiction. Roger Friedman at FOX is reporting that Duchovny was in a program to deal with his pornography addiction and went public with it because a fellow patient took that tidbit to the tabloids, which were about to pop the story. Friedman has been wildly wrong before so I would take that with a grain of salt.
It was a grim summer for the X-folks. "X-Files: I Want to Believe," was an afterthought even among sci-fi and genre fans because of the massive competition in the sector this summer. The $30 million film pulled in about $21 million in the U.S. (and about $57 million worldwide), far below expectations. I think it will do quite well as a DVD (people are accustomed, after all, to watching Mulder and Scully on the small screen), but I can't imagine we'll ever see another "X-Files" project at theaters.
I interviewed Duchovny over coffee a few months ago for a feature on the film and he was great, very droll but bright and engaging. I wish him well with his efforts to keep his marriage and family intact. I'm sure he loathes that this happening in a public space now. It's hard to tell if there is some Hollywood code-talk at work, meanwhile, in the announcement about Carter's medical treatment. I hope things go well for him. I absolutely adored the early seasons of "The X-Files," and Carter has always seemed like a cerebral innovator as a storyteller.
-- Geoff Boucher
RELATED David Duchovny talks about the religion of "The X-Files"
RELATED Frank Spotnitz on "I Want to Believe"
UPDATE An earlier version of this post had some box-office figures for "X-Files" that were incorrect. So I have excised them and subbed in a correct figure.
Photo by Max Nash (AFP/Getty Images) shows Chris Carter at British premiere of "X Files: I Want to Believe" in London in July 30, 2008.
Photo by David Hogan/Getty Images, showing Frank Spotnitz, David Duchovny, Gillian Anderson and Chris Carter at the July premiere of "The X Files: I Want To Believe" in London.
David Duchovny: 'The X-Files' is equal to God
These days, every major genre film and hit show has a significant presence on the Internet, but that wasn’t the case when "The X-Files" became a spooky sensation in the 1990s. David Duchovny said that, like his character Fox Mulder, the relentless faith of true believers is astounding to behold.
" 'The X-Files' was said to be the first Internet show," Duchovny said over coffee on a recent morning in Los Angeles. "We had chat rooms and fan sites and all that. Look, I’m usually five or six years behind whatever is hip. So it was around 2000 that I started doing e-mail and finally started understanding what all that was about."
And what was it about? The answer is religion, apparently.
"My initial response — and I still hold this to be true — is that it takes the place of some of the functions of a church in a small town: A place where people come together, ostensibly to worship something. But really what’s happening is you’re forming a community. It’s less about what you’re worshiping and more about, ‘We have these interests in common.’ Someone has a sick aunt and suddenly it’s about that, raising money to help her or sharing resources to make her life easier. That’s what it was about with 'The X-Files' on the Internet."
Duchovny and co-star Gillian Anderson are back on autopsy and trench-coat duty on July 25 as "The X-Files: I Want to Believe" pulls the FBI tandem away from the complicated conspiracy plots of the old series and puts them in the "monster of the week" mode of investigating an isolated supernatural threat.
Duchovny said that he has come to view the most loyal fans of the show as celebrants of self, not of celebrity.
"When I was at Comic-Con it felt the same as the small-town church thing. I’m not denigrating 'The X-Files,' but that fellowship isn’t essentially about the show. The fans came to Comic-Con to honor us but I think they’re honoring us because we inspire them to have a certain kind of fellowship. Now, I’m not saying we’re not worthy of that kind of honor. I want to be clear about that.”
Oh, that’s very clear; essentially, his point is that "The X-Files" is bigger than God and religion, right? "No, no! You’re going to get me in trouble. I didn’t say bigger than God. I said 'The X-Files' is equal to God."
-- Geoff Boucher
Photos: David Duchovny, Karen Tapia-Andersen/Los Angeles Times; Duchovny and Gillian Anderson, Diyah Pera / 20th Century Fox
